(FOX 9) – More than two-thirds of utility poles overall Minnesota are at least half a century old and records show their failure rate increases dramatically with age, a problem exacerbated by climate change, experts say.

These realities have prompted Xcel Energy to step up its efforts to regularly inspect and occasionally replace aging equipment before it fails. Xcel owns about 500,000 poles statewide, with an average age of 54 years, four years beyond what the utility considers its “useful life.”

“Age is really not that important in determining what needs to be replaced or not,” said Michael Lamb, senior vice president of Xcel Energy. “We’ve been building assets for decades.”

Context

Although the utility aims for equipment to last decades, it doesn’t always do that long.

Once poles reach 40 years old, records show the failure rate increases and continues to do so every decade. The biggest increase occurs between ages 60 and 70, when the failure rate almost triples, from just over five percent to more than 15.

“These would be things that could fail suddenly. It could fail quickly,” said Dr. Mahmoud Kabalan, director of the Microgrid Research Center at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul.

Kabalan said the aging grid poses threats that are difficult to predict, especially with more severe weather than we’ve seen in recent decades.

“Once they get past a certain limit, a big storm could wipe them out,” he said. “You just don’t know when it fails. It might stay operational and meet specifications, but a big storm – a big ice storm – or high winds could cause those poles to fail.”

Changing weather

Experts say climate change is the only threat facing the power grid, both in Minnesota and across the country.

“As weather events get worse, so do outages,” Kabalan said. “So there is a strong correlation between bad weather and outages.”

Lamb agreed that severe weather remains a significant threat to the network.

“Climate change is a major challenge that we must prepare for,” he said.

There is at least one solution to weather-related outages, but it has considerable drawbacks.

Why not put more wires underground?

During the Oct. 1 vice presidential debate, Gov. Tim Walz asked during a discussion about infrastructure, “How can we make sure we protect by burying our power lines?”

Although it is possible to install them underground, this is not practical in most cases because the cost is too extraordinary for most consumers.

Xcel said installing overhead lines underground can cost up to $500,000 per mile in suburban neighborhoods and $5 million per mile in urban areas.

“It’s not only expensive for the utility – which ultimately goes into our price – it’s also expensive for our homeowners,” Lamb said.

He also pointed out that buried lines are not immune to outages and often take longer to repair.

Xcel regularly inspects and replaces its poles, if necessary. The utility deploys technicians on the ground and flies drones to inspect them from all angles. In 2023, it has inspected nearly 56,000 of its 500,000 poles, replacing 11% of them.

Xcel announced Thursday that it will invest $13.2 billion between 2025 and 2030 in the region that includes Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota, more than half of which will be dedicated to improving its systems aging transportation and distribution systems. In addition, launched at the end of 2024.

“It’s in our DNA to keep the lights on for our customers, and we really feel their frustration when they go out,” Lamb said.